Access to the doctorate | Imbalance in Psychology

Some 2,000 new students each year undertake a bachelor’s degree in psychology at a Quebec university. Less than one in six will have access to a doctorate, which is compulsory for the right to practice as a psychologist. In times of scarcity, it is unacceptable that so many brilliant students hit a wall and are thus denied the title of psychologist, argue leading figures in the field.

Louise Leduc
The Press

At McGill, in 2021, 460 students were enrolled in the bachelor’s degree in psychology. At the doctoral level, there were 10. At Concordia University, in 2022-2023, at 1^er cycle, the new cohort is made up of just over 500 students. In 2021-2022, 13 students received a doctorate from this institution. At the University of Montreal (UdeM), 60 students were able to register for the doctorate in 2022, while approximately 300 per year are registered for the bachelor’s degree. The University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) awards the largest number of doctorates, between 70 and 89 annually (and has had 243 to 310 new registrations for the bachelor’s degree in recent years).

Why do universities admit so many students to the baccalaureate knowing that they will not be able to offer them access to the doctorate, when the academic record of so many of them allows them perfectly to aspire to it and that the title of a psychologist requires it?

“It’s an excellent question,” says Hélène David, who was a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal, then vice-rector and minister of higher education.

She explains that the problem comes from the method of funding universities: the more students there are, the higher it is. Those who are registered in psychology — and who need the doctorate to obtain the right to practice — thus find themselves in a mad competition. A “ rat race “, in his words, very deleterious, which affects their mental health.

She evokes here the case of this former psychology student who ended up being admitted to medicine. “For the same duration of studies, you will be a doctor, you will be richer and you will have more power in society! she remembers telling him.

Too many students, missing teachers

The underlying problem? Since 2006, a doctorate has been compulsory to become a psychologist in Quebec. However, this decision did not go hand in hand with the addition of professors in the universities. Result: there are enough of them to give baccalaureate courses in large auditoriums, but not enough to ensure the long and individual follow-up of students that a doctoral thesis requires.

When the obligation of the doctorate was introduced, Hélène David thought it was a good idea.

She regrets that this has resulted in such an “admissions funnel” and in studies that never end, illustrates Hélène David. She herself obtained her title of psychologist at the age of 21, with much lower requirements.

“I saw it as a big master’s degree,” she explains, saying that she then believed that the doctorate would allow students to do more internships, and not lead them to do more research.

Rose-Marie Charest was president of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec when the requirement of a doctorate to be a psychologist was introduced. The idea, she says, was precisely to ensure that young people had more practical training, and not that their careers were unduly lengthened by research requirements.

“We have to find a way to train more psychologists,” she says today. People’s needs are greater these days, and society cannot afford to have such severe shortages. »

For the time being, the grades required are always higher and the related experience in research, volunteering, etc. are constantly growing, explains Stéphanie Juneau, vice-president of the Interuniversity Federation of Doctoral Students in Psychology, who describes access to the doctorate as being very “anxiogenic”.

The Association of Psychology Students of the University of Montreal (AGEEPUM) notes for its part that it was flabbergasted that the mental health action plan, unveiled last year, makes no mention of the difficulty of access to the doctorate, which is nevertheless at the heart of the problem.

Before enrolling, young people know that they will have to go to a doctorate to become psychologists, notes AGEEPUM. But it is only once they are admitted that they realize that even a perfect report may not be enough, as their department tells them during information sessions once they start school. They are then asked to think of a plan B, to go for example in psychoeducation, criminology, etc.

long studies

The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, seems to ignore all this. During the election campaign, he had declared that to train a psychologist, “it takes three years of university”.

In reality, young people only complete their studies after eight to nine years, notes Christine Grou, president of the Order of Psychologists.

“Could the university program be done more quickly? Maybe,” she says, assuring that the Order of Psychologists “is not closed to the idea of ​​trying any solution that increases access [à un psychologue]. »

But she points out that for those students who are admitted to psychology faculties, all is not lost either. “Doing a bachelor’s degree in psychology gives a very interesting culture,” argues Ms.^me Group.

The universities that sent us their data also specified that it would be dangerous to make a connection between the labor shortage and the marked reduction in the number of students between the undergraduate and doctoral levels. Not all aspire to be psychologists by enrolling in this field, they argue.

This is the reason why only students enrolled in the baccalaureate were taken into account. At the Université de Montréal, if we include all those who are registered in the psychology department (minors, majors, certificates, bachelor’s degrees, etc.) in the fall of 2021, full-time or part-time, the figure rises to 2,143 students.

And at the doctoral level, for the rare places available, competition also comes from students from other universities.

If some young people become aware during their studies that the profession of psychologist is not for them, almost all aspire to it, notes Hélène David.

“Worried about 2023”

Sophie Parent, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montreal, affirms for her part that her institution is aware “that it would be desirable for us to train more psychologists”. (Ditto for Laval University, which tells us to “seek solutions to increase the number of people admitted to the doctorate”.)

But there is a lack of professors to ensure more thesis supervision, explains M^me parent. Each professor in the department of the University of Montreal already follows between five and nine doctoral students – and “we are very worried in 2023” because of the announced boycott, she explains.

Hundreds of psychologists and neuropsychologists in the Quebec network are indeed threatening to no longer take on interns and interns next year.

They calculate that a public sector psychologist in Ontario earns 57% more than his counterpart in Quebec. According to the Coalition of Psychologists of the Quebec Public Network, these working conditions contribute to the forefront of shortages, psychologists being much more attracted to private practice, where salaries are much higher.